Page:California Inter Pocula.djvu/37



CHAPTER II.

THREE   CEXTURIES    OF  WILD    TALK    ABOUT    GOLD    IN  CALI- FORNIA.—1537-1837.

Thrusting, toiling,  wailing,  moiling,

Frowning, preaching — such  a  riot! Each with  never-ceasing  labor. Whilst he  thinks  he  cheats  his  neighbor,

Cheating his  own  heart  of  quiet.

— Shelley.

In those  clays  of  unbridled  adventure,  when  man was permitted  to  prey  upon  his  fellow-man,  and  when the many-sided  world  was  as  yet  but  partially  known to civilization,  gold  was  the  chiefest  good  that  strange lands could  yield,  and  hence  every  strange  land,  in the  imagination  or  desire  of  its  discoverer,  abounded in gold. So it  was  that  California,  e"ven  before  it  was seen  by  any  Spaniard,  was  reputed,  without  reason, rich  in  gold.  What  stories  Cabeza  de  Vaca  had  to tell,  when  he  arrived  from  the  Mexican  gulf  at  Culia- can,  in  1537,  of  the  vast  wealth  of  this  whole  northern legion!  As  to  the  truth  of  the  report,  it  must  be true,  for  it  was  the  people  of  the  country  who  had informed  him,  though  in  language  that  he  did  not understand,  and  of  realms  of  which  they  knew  noth- ing. From  the  very  first  a  strong  conviction  possessed the  minds  of  the  conquerors  of  Mexico  that  the  west- ern coast,  particularly  toward  the  north,  was  rich  in gold  and  pearls;  and  so  all  through  the  century  suc- cessive expeditions  were  sent  to  the  gulf  of  California, and  to  the  peninsula.

That most  reverend  and  truthful  man,  Francis Fletcher, preacher  to  the  pirate  Drake,  who,  because God commanded  Adam  to  subdue  the  earth,  felt  it